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Pakistan is the main force nurturing the drive to create a ‘so-called Khalistan’ or unbiased homeland for Sikhs and the extremists backed by Islamabad pose critical threats to India and Canada, in accordance to a report by a number one Canadian think tank.
The report ‘Khalistan—A project of Pakistan’ from Macdonald-Laurier Institute notes that Pakistan is “really driving the Khalistan bus” at a time when the “Khalistan movement has been going nowhere in the Sikhs’ home state” of Punjab.
The report —authored by veteran journalist Terry Milewski, who has tracked pro-Khalistan teams in Canada for many years—says Pakistan’s help for pro-Khalistan group entails leveraging extremists primarily based in Canada, together with supporters with ties to terrorism, due to the shortage of traction in Punjab.
Though the Canadian authorities has already mentioned it gained’t recognise a so-called referendum on Khalistan scheduled for November by teams similar to Sikhs For Justice, which was banned by India in 2019, the report warned the transfer “provides oxygen that fuels extremist ideologies, radicalises young Canadians, wreaks havoc on reconciliation, and usurps legislatures”, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute mentioned.
In their foreword to the report, former Canadian cupboard minister Ujjal Dossanjh and Shuvaloy Majumdar, a programme director on the think tank, mentioned: “The Milewski report should be essential reading for any who wish to understand Pakistan’s influence in guiding the Khalistan proposition, its perversion of the Sikh faith, and its ongoing campaign of extremism and terrorism in two of the world’s important democracies.”
Also Read: Pro-Khalistan group alleges India disrupted secessionist referendum, Canada rejects idea
The Justin Trudeau authorities’s perceived softness in the direction of pro-Khalistan teams in its first stint throughout 2015-19 was one of many key causes for a downturn in India-Canada relations. The Liberal Party authorities in Canada cited freedom of expression as a significant motive for permitting the actions of pro-Khalistan teams however this discovered few takers in New Delhi.
The 2018 Public Report on the Terrorism Threat to Canada initially cited “Sikh (Khalistani) extremist ideologies and movements” among the many prime 5 nationwide safety points for the nation, however this was later changed in a revised model of the report by “extremists who support violent means to establish an independent state within India” following stress from a global foyer marketing campaign that advocates for an unbiased Khalistan, the report mentioned.
“The proposition of an independent Khalistan, in truth, is a backward idea from a backward time. It is a proposal without economic or democratic logic, unloved by the very Punjabis whose lives it would most directly affect. It is a fantasy rooted in religious bigotry and chauvinism, kept alive in Canada by thugs and political hustlers unbothered by the innocent lives that have been lost in its name,” Dossanjh and Majumdar mentioned of their foreword.
“It is a proposal hostile to Canada’s interest in seeing a united and prosperous India, and in that sense, threatens not just one country, but two. In the service of this cause, extremists animated by Pakistan seek to distort history and betray the vast majority of Sikhs who live in peace and freedom,” they added.
Besides tracing the long-standing hyperlinks between pro-Khalistan terror teams and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) company and the way in which during which Khalistani terrorists have been sheltered in Pakistan within the 1990s, the report notes the Canadian safety institution’s failure to stop the bombing of Air India flight 182, which killed 329 individuals, a majority of them Canadian residents.
“No matter how low the support for Khalistan sinks in India—and it has sunk very low indeed—the cause still survives in Pakistan, where jihadist groups have made common cause with Sikh separatists against their shared enemy, India,” the report mentioned.
“An example is the leading Khalistani figure in Pakistan, Gopal Singh Chawla, who makes no bones about his friendly alliance with the Pakistani jihadist Hafiz Saeed, leader of the feared Lashkar-e-Taiba,” it added.
A Canadian citizen, Satinderpal Singh Gill from Surrey, BC, lived for years in Pakistan as a senior official of the International Sikh Youth Federation, which has been banned as a terrorist organisation in India, Canada, the UK and the US, however not by Pakistan, the report famous.
The report additionally highlighted the dichotomy between the harassment of the Sikh minority in Pakistan and the unstinted help supplied by pro-Khalistan leaders similar to Sikhs For Justice chief Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, one of many main movers behind the 2020 referendum.
Though Panun claims to lead a motion for human rights, he sided with China in its border dispute with India and wrote to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, swearing that, “if India ever attacked Pakistan, the Pro-Khalistan Sikhs will extend full support to Pakistan”.
The report additionally questioned the maps of the proposed Khalistan, noting that they don’t depict even “one inch [of] traditional Sikh lands in Pakistan—not to Lahore, where Maharaja Ranjit Singh ruled over a Sikh empire two hundred years ago, or even to Nankana Sahib, sacred birthplace of Guru Nanak, the first Sikh guru”.
“It appears, then, that Pakistan wants the Sikhs to be free, but not in Pakistan. The separatists, in turn, clearly know where their patron sets the limits. Even drawing a map which presumes upon Pakistan’s generosity is a step too far—one that could sever the lifeline which has sustained the dream of Khalistan for so long,” it mentioned.
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